There may be respite at hand for consumers who are at the receiving end of credit and debit card frauds after having their cards cloned while making payments at shops.
There may be respite at hand for consumers who are at the receiving end of credit and debit card frauds after having their cards cloned while making payments at shops.
Rajesh Aggarwal, the outgoing principal secretary (information technology), Maharashtra government, has said that it is the responsibility of outlets which provide credit and debit card payment facilities to protect the data of their customers.
In his order issued last week, Aggarwal, who is also the adjudicating officer under the IT act, has ordered an oil marketing company and petrol pump to pay Rs15,000 each to a victim who had his card cloned while paying for fuel.
Naresh Chaware filled petrol at Drive In Auto Services, Nagpur on February 8 and 11 last year using his SBI card. However, while making the payment, the supervisor at the pump used two different swiping machines to complete the transaction, citing connectivity issues with the machine used first. The second machine was used for the cloning of the card.
On February 17, Chaware received SMSes that Rs23,000 had been withdrawn from his account. He informed bank officials about the three fraudulent transactions made at Chandigarh, and his card was immediately blocked by the bank. The same day, he lodged a complaint with Ambazari police station, claiming damages of Rs50,000 from the pump and Indian Oil Corporation.
During the hearings, the respondents said the crime was an act of a petrol pump employee and added that they were cooperating with the police. In their report, the police said they had arrested petrol pump supervisor Nilesh Somkuwar and his friends Raghuvir Singh, Manjeet Singh and Vineet Kumar. A chargesheet has been filed in the case.
The accused would first use a dummy machine, get the customer to swipe the card and input the PIN number, then say the machine is faulty. After this, he would give the correct (authentic) machine to the consumer for the payment transactions. In the process, they would clone the card using data captured by the cloning machine. The police said the accused had cheated around 11 people of Rs2.60 lakh using this method. The machines have been seized and sent to the forensic lab in Kalina.
"The oil company admitted during the hearing that dealership agreement with petrol pumps do not have any guidelines for recruitment of employees. Third-party inspection of petrol pumps also do not cover this aspect," noted Aggarwal in his order. "(The) petrol pump owner had not got done any police verification of the staff being recruited," he pointed out.
"When (a) petrol pump is offering its customers options of credit/debit card payment system, it is their duty to protect customer sensitive data as per section 43A of the Information Technology Act, 2000. With dummy machines being used to clone the cards, the due diligence clause is breached. Both respondents must bear the blame for this breach of act," said Aggarwal, who asked the two to pay compensation of Rs15,000 each to Chaware within a month of this order, failing which a monthly compound interest of 12% will also be chargeable.
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